As part of our podcast theme for November of anti-bullying, I spoke last week to Jodie Goodacre. Jodie is one of Time To Change's Young Champions, young people with direct experience of mental health issues who work alongside the Time To Change team to break down the stigma around mental health. Jodie also posts to her own blog at www.justagirlinterrupted.com.

We are Time to Change, the growing social movement changing how we all think and act about mental health. Still too many people are made to feel ashamed or isolated because they have a mental health problem but we’re here to change that.

— Time To Change

In our conversation, we discuss the impact of bullying upon mental health, the additional challenges resulting from cyberbullying, and how schools can work to support young people.

The podcast was recorded over the internet, so the audio is occasionally 'iffy', but Jodie's insights, borne of direct experience of working with vulnerable young people in the community, are both thoughtful and thought-provoking. We hope you enjoy listening to the show.

This week, 13th to 17th November, is anti-bullying week. Anti-bullying week, organised by The Anti-Bullying Alliance, encourages young people, schools, and professionals to discuss and act on the issue of bullying.

Last week, I visited The Orchard Centre to record conversations with four young people with direct experience of severe bullying in their primary or secondary schools before moving to the alternative, specialist provision at The Orchard. Earlier this week, I shared a conversation with Kai and Alice:

In this episode you can here a conversation with Kia and Tommy. The views they express in the conversation are their own. It's not an easy listen, but hearing about bullying in the words of young people themselves really drives home the life-changing impact that bullying has.

Huge thanks to the young people themselves, and to The Orchard Centre for organising the recording with their students.

This week, 13th to 17th November, is anti-bullying week. Anti-bullying week, organised by The Anti-Bullying Alliance, encourages young people, schools, and professionals to discuss and act on the issue of bullying.

Last week, I visited The Orchard Centre to record conversations with four young people with direct experience of severe bullying in their primary or secondary schools before moving to the alternative, specialist provision at The Orchard. Later in the week, I'll be sharing a conversation with Tia and Tommy, but in this first show, you can hear my conversation with Kai and Alice.

The views they express in the conversation are their own. It's not an easy listen, but hearing about bullying in the words of young people themselves really drives home the life-changing impact that bullying has.

During the HeadStart Autumn Conference on October 3rd, André Tomlin (aka The Mental Elf on Twitter) interviewed some of the keynote speakers and workshop leads about the topics of their presentations, and the experiences and research that support their ideas.

You can find all of the individual podcasts in the conference pages at The HeadStart Wolverhampton Autumn Conference or on the HeadStart channel on our SoundCloud channel here.

Alison Cope

Claire Birkenshaw

Ken Corish

You can listen to the second set of podcasts - from Alison Cope, Claire Birkenshaw, and Ken Corish, below:

Thanks to André for recording these great interviews - we hope you found them to be informative and insightful!